A few decades ago, when Mark Paris was helping develop the massive new community of Summerlin, a newspaper headline dubbed the newly opened Summerlin Parkway the “freeway to nowhere.”
Today, he’s in charge of developing another mini-city, but this time he’s not building in the boonies.
Paris is CEO of the LandWell Co., developer of Cadence, a 2,200-acre master-planned community near the intersection of Lake Mead Parkway and Boulder Highway in Henderson. Project plans at the former industrial-waste dump call for 13,250 homes, 1.1 million square feet of commercial property, 30 acres of trails, six schools and a casino-resort.
Cadence is expected to take 10 to 15 years to complete. Seven families had moved in by last month, and Paris said he expected to have 25 to 40 families at Cadence before the year ends.
Homes range from about 1,800 to 3,200 square feet and cost $200,000 to $500,000.
Manufacturers and government agencies poured waste at the project site, legally, for years. They used unlined evaporation ponds until 1976, and at least one company switched to lined ponds and dumped waste there until 2005. More than $120 million was spent on cleanup efforts.
About 400 acres contained potentially dangerous amounts of metals, pesticides, asbestos and other contaminants. Work crews began hauling off polluted soil in 2008 to a waste-management site a few miles away. Virtually all of it had been removed by 2010, according to LandWell affiliate Basic Remediation Co., which was formed to oversee the cleanup.
The company in late September received its final official acknowledgement from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection that it met its cleanup goals, said Ranajit “Ron” Sahu, project manager for Basic Remediation.
LandWell announced in 2004 that it reached a deal to sell the Cadence site to builder Centex Homes. Centex, however, backed out in 2007. LandWell bosses postponed developing Cadence after the housing market crashed, but they started selling land to homebuilders by 2013, when Lennar Corp. acquired property for a 55-and-over community.
Cadence isn’t the only master-planned community in the valley that stalled during the recession and now is back in business. Others include 1,900-acre Inspirada in Henderson, which was forced into bankruptcy in 2011; 1,700-acre Skye Canyon in northwest Las Vegas, which was seized through foreclosure in 2008 before anything was built; and 2,700-acre Park Highlands in North Las Vegas, which went bankrupt twice and, after being split into two projects by separate groups last year, is still waiting for its first homes.
Paris recently spoke with VEGAS INC about his project. Edited excerpts:
Let’s start with an update on Cadence. How much land have you sold to builders, and which ones are here?
Our first phase is about 345 acres, with about 1,400 units. Lennar has purchased 208 acres for an age-restricted, active-adult community. They’ll build about 950 homes, and they have about half of those lots graded. They have 22 homes under construction; of those, six are models. They’ve started construction on a 28,000-square-foot recreation center. They’ve added a man-cave to it; should be real popular. The other builders are Ryland Homes, Richmond American Homes and Woodside Homes. We will probably add one more builder in the next few months, but our plan is to not have too many. Of the four builders today, we have 18 model homes. By the first quarter of next year, we’ll have 32 different model homes.
Why not bring in more builders? What’s the disadvantage to doing that?
You have more control over the planned community. We’ve been careful to make sure they have segmented areas in the market so they aren’t directly competing with each other. The idea is to have a lot of product diversity but have a limited number of builders.
It’s common for builders in Las Vegas to not break ground on a house until they have a deposit from a buyer, so there hasn't been much speculative home construction. What will the builders be doing here?
Right now we have about 120 homes permitted; 92 are under construction, and 53 homes have sold. So there are spec homes being built here.
Who are the buyers? Are they people who already live in the valley and this is a new house, or newcomers to the area?
Generally, we get people from this part of the valley, but it’s a mix. This is an infill property; we’re surrounded by development. The Galleria mall is five minutes away, the new Henderson Hospital opens next year, that’s five minutes away. We just signed an agreement with Smith’s; they’re building a grocery store in Cadence, at Warm Springs and Lake Mead. They’ll break ground in probably the second or third quarter next year.
When you go along Boulder Highway, it looks like there’s space for commercial property.
We have 150 acres; we’re permitted though the city and state for a hotel-gaming property.
That’s the site Boyd Gaming Corp. was in talks to buy from your company several years ago.
We’re still in discussions with Boyd, but there’s no demand now for a neighborhood casino. It’s years down the road, as soon as we get more homes built here. We’re permitted for 1,500 rooms, but I don’t think you’ll see that.
One thing that separates Cadence from other master-planned communities that fizzled during recession is that they’re on the outer edges of the valley. What are the pros and cons of living in an infill project?
We have the same amenities, the same housing, everything that you’d find in Inspirada or Skye Canyon, but we’re close to everything. When I was working on Summerlin, I used to tell people if they were out there and they wanted to go buy groceries, they’d have to pack their lunch first. The other thing that I think separates us from other master-planned communities is that some were under multiple ownership and heavily in debt. We’re under one ownership group, we have no debt, and it gives us more stability. When people move in here, they don’t have to worry about the bank coming in and foreclosing on the developer.
Do you ever hear concerns from builders or prospective homeowners about being so close to the industrial plants off Boulder Highway in the Black Mountain Industrial Center? People already live in the area, but has anyone ever said, "Hey, this is a nice community, but I don’t want to live so close to a bunch of smokestacks"?
I haven’t heard that, and there’s a misconception about those industries. (Titanium producer) Timet has made a huge investment in their property; (chlorine and hydrochloric-acid maker) Olin has made a big investment in upgrading and modernizing its facilities. If you go to major cities, you’ll find places with industrial complexes surrounded by residential housing.
Do you think any more master-planned communities will pop up in the valley?
I think you’ll see it, but the challenge, of course, is drive time and traffic. There have been rumblings that Coyote Springs (the 43,000-acre community an hour’s drive north of Las Vegas) is starting again, but for that, you do have to pack your lunch. Still, people commute here from Mesquite, people commute here from St. George, Utah, so I think eventually you’ll see another planned community out in Logandale or somewhere, but I don’t think the market could sustain it at this point.
What persuaded you that the timing was right to bring back Cadence? Obviously the real estate market got wiped out, but what got you thinking it could work now?
We did some research that showed the market was coming back, there was more job creation on the Strip, and at the time, there was so much upheaval with other master-planned communities, with infighting and financial problems with their lenders. Given our independence, we were in a position to move forward when others didn’t have the capital or the cooperation among the owners.